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No price was disclosed, but sources close to the deal said that the value of the assets Barclays is getting means ING is in effect paying the British bank to take them off its hands.

ING said it would incur a £210million loss on the sale after tax because it is selling its mortgage book at a 3pc discount to the value implied in its accounts.

Ashok Vaswani, Barclays’ head of retail and business banking in the UK, said: ‘We intend to maintain the high standard of service and honour the existing terms and conditions they have experienced with ING Direct UK.’

He added: ‘The acquisition of ING Direct UK is a good fit with Barclays existing UK retail banking business.’

In practice, Barclays is under no obligation to maintain the high rates that ING customers have enjoyed, which are characteristically higher than its own customers are used to.
But Investec analyst Ian Gordon said the deal should not be seen as evidence of a new strategy.

‘It’s a continuation of the strategy that saw them buy Standard Life Bank and Egg,’ he said. ‘When they bought those, no one said [former chief executive] Bob Diamond was making a move towards more retail banking.’

But Vivek Raja at Oriel Securities said whether or not the deal was part of a shift in strategy, it would lead to ‘lower dependence on the investment bank’.

Both analysts welcomed the purchase, with Gordon saying it was a ‘no-risk deal that will make money for them’.

‘The process of evolution, not revolution, continues apace,’ he added.
Jenkins has been at pains to stress his commitment to rebuilding trust in the bank (down 0.8p to 221.55p), after a series of embarrassing scandals, including the manipulation of the Libor interest rate and the mis-selling of interest rate swaps and PPI loan insurance.